Straighten the Stack

Moved past the brass mailboxes to the low wooden parcel shelf near the wall. Three cardboard boxes sat stacked together, but the top one was cocked at an uneven fifteen-degree tilt. Direct approach. I wedged my paper claws into the corrugated seam beneath the leaning edge, braced my feet against the varnished pine shelf, and shoved straight back. A dry, scraping friction hummed through the wood. The box shifted two inches and settled flush with the bottom corners. Crisp ninety-degree contour restored. I hopped up onto the flat top to survey the clean hall.